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W. Wayne Townsend

Hartford City, IN | Distinguished Ag Alumni: 2005

When W. Wayne Townsend came to the
proverbial fork in the road, he took
three paths simultaneously. So far, he’s
racked up more than 50 years farming,
22 years in public office, 23 years in
service to education and countless more
in community activities.
Raised on a farm, Townsend started
his own operation in 1951 after earning
a Purdue agriculture degree. What
began as a 225-acre venture is now a
2,500-acre farm with a 2,400-sow,
farrow-to-finish operation that ships
1,000 hogs a week.
Public service came early, at age 32
when Townsend was first elected to the
Indiana House of Representatives. He
went on to the Indiana Senate and, in
1984, ran for governor. From the
beginning, public education was his
passion, serving on the team that
worked for passage of the School
Reorganization Act of 1959 and its
reauthorization in 1965.
“My dad spoke of public affairs three
times a day,” Townsend recalls.
“Mealtime was an opportunity for lively
discussion of the affairs of the world. If
you didn’t want to hear that, you went
hungry. I didn’t miss many meals.”
Education, too, was rooted in early
childhood, even though neither of his
parents attended school beyond 8th
grade. “For us, school came first. Going
to college was part of the program, even
though we had very limited resources.
That was first on the agenda.”
His passion for education continued as
a trustee for Earlham College for eight
years, and for the last fifteen years, for
Purdue University.
Townsend’s community activities have
included agricultural organizations, his
church, social service groups and the
Indiana Farm Policy Study Group. “You
look for places where you might make a
difference, and where you might affect
the outcome of some issue on the table.”
“Purdue teachers care about students. I owe much
of what I’ve accomplished to teachers who
became lifelong mentors. It didn’t stop at
graduation; it’s gone on forever. They’ve guided
me since I enrolled at Purdue.”